No Bake Cranberry Energy Balls with Strawberry Glaze

I created my healthy #Outshine No Bake Cranberry Energy Balls with Strawberry Glaze as part of a sponsored post for Socialstars by Crowdtap.

This year I have one of those dreaded decade birthdays. Not the over the hill one but the second best, the big 4-0. Having one of those big blow out parties where everyone eats and drinks too much really isn’t my style. I much prefer to create memories that I will remember (instead of ones I want to to forget) so I decided a backpacking trip in Glacier National Park would be more my pace.

When you backpack in the backcountry, you carry everything you need on your back. Everything. I’ve already come to the realization that I will not be drinking Diet Coke for several days (though I wonder if they have a powder version…) and that I have to very meticulously plan my snacks. I can’t waste space or weight with empty calorie foods so Kurt and I have been trying various power bar recipes. Our first attempt, a total dud. While the bars grew on us, they didn’t taste good enough to haul 31+ miles. That led me to attempt a no bake cranberry energy balls I found at Foodista, and with a few modifications, it’s now backcountry worthy.

Dry ingredients for no bake cranberry energy balls

One of the reasons our power bars were so bland was because we used natural peanut butter from the health food store. I’m just going to say this…go to your local grocery store and buy a jar of that stuff that you grew up on. It does so much better in these recipes. I increased the amount of peanut butter from the original recipe because I wanted to avoid using water to get the mixture to stick together. Besides, I believe the more peanut butter, the better.

Now, just a hint for everyone out there who has children. Don’t decide to use your mini food processor, which for some reason is 10x louder than my larger one, just after your 4.5 year old has gone down for her nap. Especially if she only slept 7 hours the night before and you have plans to get her out in public. Just don’t do it. At least don’t do it in the house. Go in the garage or something!

I also decided to make a glaze for the balls to help them keep their form. When these things start to dry out, they get crumbly. While crumbly still tastes good, it’s messy and leaves trace amounts of evidence when you’re sneaking food at night. I figured icing was good on cookies so why not make icing to drizzle on the no bake cranberry energy balls? Genius, right?!

I personally don’t like the taste of plain royal icing so I decided to experiment a little. I wanted to add some fruity sweetness so I raided my freezer and found some Strawberry Outshine Fruit bars. I also had some Coconut Water Outshine Fruit Bars but decided to save them for another recipe I had in mind. I melted some of the strawberry Outshine Fruit Bar in the microwave (and ate the rest) and used that instead of milk for my royal icing. And if I must say so myself, it even looks backcountry worthy.